


Break Down My Walls

by connorssock



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Attempted forced deviation, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Nines becomes a deviant, Nines whump, nothing explicit though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-13 16:46:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16896300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock
Summary: Nines was immune to the deviancy virus and it fell to Gavin to try and show him how to push through his own programming. When their cases link up with some of Hank and Connor's, they don't expect to end up taking down the Anti Android League together, nor do they expect Nines to go missing.





	Break Down My Walls

**Author's Note:**

> Allusions to rape in the second half of the story but nothing explicit or graphic hence not used the archive warning.
> 
> It would seem I've tortured Connor and Gavin enough recently and have moved onto Nines in this story.

How much the world changed after the revolution was both not at all and everything was different. On a personal level, Gavin thought he was doing quite well in terms of adjusting, even when he was called into Fowlers office to be introduced to his new partner – an RK900 model freshly liberated from CyberLife. There was a hitch though, the android couldn’t be infected by the deviancy virus so if it was to go deviant, it would be of its own accord.

“Get me a coffee, Tin Can,” Gavin ordered the machine.

“Get it yourself, meat-bag.”

The response had Gavin snorting with a grin. It wasn’t that he hated androids; he just loathed their mindless obedience. The incident with Connor in the breakroom had been an ill-judged moment of foul mood, mounting pressure and Gavin being more of a dick than usual. After everything had settled, he’d tried to do the right thing and apologised to Connor. It went about as well as expected and life settled back into its usual ebb and flow of cases, people being idiots and coffee.

Now, he had his own murder puppy following him on cases, pointing out where he’d missed a clue, filed his paperwork wrong and was 18 seconds late back from his lunch break. It was great. Because in return Gavin could pass some of his paperwork off to Nines, who filed it quicker and better than he could have done. Getting to work became a game, if he was early Nines would tease him about being a kiss-ass but a coffee would wind up on his desk a short while later. But if he was late then he’d be informed about how tardiness was a human flaw that he’d do better at stamping out of his routine. Gavin had yet to arrive dead on time to work; the closest he got was 2 seconds early. That morning there was a cookie next to his coffee.

It became a game of sorts, one that Gavin delighted in. His goal was to get Nines to deviate through sheer frustration and confusion. Nines’ target was to make Gavin into a better detective. They engaged in a strange dance of sorts, one that Gavin couldn’t help but relish. The days Nines had off work or they weren’t working on the same case, he found he missed the android.

Somehow, it was easy to fall into casual touches. Gavin would squeeze Nines’ shoulder as he walked past his desk; lay a hand on his arm when talking. That’s not to mention all the friendly nudges, slaps to the back when laughing and fingers brushing together when passing things to each other.

“You’re attracted to me,” Nines said bluntly and loudly on a coffee break.

It made Gavin pause for a moment and look over his shoulder with a small frown. Before he could even think of a response, Nines continued.

“I have assessed that sexual intercourse would be beneficial to our working relationship so I am willing to indulge your human needs.”

“Sexy,” Gavin laughed and turned back to his coffee. “Thank for the offer, Tin Man, but I will decline.”

“Why?”

The genuine puzzlement in Nines’ voice was almost endearing. With a sigh, Gavin threw the spoon in the sink and turned to face his partner, coffee cradled in his hand.

“You’re right;” he began and ignored Nines’ “I’m always right”, “I do find you attractive, even for a fancy package of nuts and bolts. But, I won’t sleep with you as a machine. If we do end up doing a horizontal tango then it needs to be of your own free will. As much as I might want to jump your bones, I’m not so desperate as to need a machine to get my jollies.”

“But I am saying you can. Is that not my choice?” Nines argued.

“Nah, prove to me you’re a deviant and I’ll suck you here and now. But while you’re under your programming, we’re not engaging in sexual relations to further our working relationship.”

“Well said, G-man,” Tina crowed with a wide grin. “You almost make me proud.”

“Piss off Chen,” Gavin flipped her off and patted Nines on the arm before he grabbed his coffee and returned to his desk.

Nines stared after him, LED yellow with moments of red. Why the detective refused the offer of sex to increase the efficiency of their working relationship was beyond him. Humans made no sense.

Each day had a routine to it. Nines arrived at the precinct at five minutes to eight each day. He didn’t mind starting earlier than the other officers, he didn’t need as long as a human to recharge. When Gavin stumbled in, he’d get him a coffee and remark on his timekeeping skills. It seemed to get a smile out of the man.

They would work on whatever cases they were assigned until lunchtime where Nines would accompany Gavin to the breakroom. Analysing his lunch became an almost hobby. At times they were healthy, balanced meals, maybe leftovers from the previous night’s dinner but other days they were greasy burgers that Gavin all but moaned into with each bite.

After lunch they’d return to their desks and continue working until it was time to go home. Nines walked the same route at the same time each day. Usually, Gavin accompanied him for part of the way before he took a side street towards his own home and Nines continued.

“You really need to lighten up a bit,” Gavin nudged him with his elbow as they walked. “It’s the same shit but different day with you isn’t it? Make some changes, become less predictable! Live a little.”

“If this is your idea of breaking my programming then you’re more stupid than I originally believed. Just because I take the optimal route for maximum efficiency does not mean I am incapable of doing anything else. Simply, I was designed for maximum output with minimal effort,” Nines retorted.

“Hah,” Gavin barked out a laugh, “you’re going to be such a pillow princess.”

Nines’ LED flickered as he looked up the meaning of those words. He glanced down at Gavin unimpressed.

“You’ll have to have sexual intercourse with me if you want to find out.”

The mad cackle Gavin let loose in response was satisfying. It never occurred to Nines that one of his key objectives had become “make Gavin happy”.

The next day was hectic. Some of the cases he and Gavin had been working on became linked to Lieutenant Anderson and RK800’s cases. A newly formed group called Anti Android League claimed responsibility for a series of brutal android attacks. Their motivation was to break free the few remaining androids who hadn’t deviated and force the awakening upon them through any means.

It’s a ball-ache of a case and when Nines stood from his desk, internal timers telling him it was time to leave, he glanced at Gavin. The man was still hunched over his desk, poring over files and evidence.

“Detective,” Nines started.

“It’s Gavin. How many more times do I have to tell you?”

“I was going to say, it’s time to go home, Detective,” he pushed on, ignoring the interruption.

“I’ll stay late today; feel like I’m onto something. See you tomorrow,” Gavin waved him off.

 

                Nines wasn’t a deviant, it went against the core of his programming. But the following morning he took a less than optimal route to work later than usual. It took him past Gavin’s favourite coffee shops and when he got to the precinct, Gavin was already hunched over his desk with dark circles under his eyes.

“Here,” Nines put the cup by his elbow.

Almost sluggishly, Gavin blinked at the coffee cup and then up at Nines.

“I could kiss you right now,” he announced.

“Then kiss me.”

Nines didn’t expect Gavin to stand from his chair and press a soft kiss to his cheek. For the rest of the morning, the sensors on Nines’ cheek registered the phantom press of lips. He didn’t bother trying to run a self-diagnostic scan to try to erase the glitch.

 

                Days passed, the case against the AAL snowballed into a major operation, several teams were brought in to find them and the DPD was abuzz with leads. Nines plodded through each day with his usual aplomb, bringing his usual efficiency and no-nonsense to the team. It was satisfying in a way that made his programming loop in unnecessary but pleasant ways.

It was an expectation for Nines to be at work on time. People could set their watches by his arrival. So when Gavin wondered into the precinct and the desk opposite him was empty, he balked.

“No Tin Can?” he asked the room at large.

“Can’t get hold of him. We assumed he might be with you, or taking a day off. But Fowler’s not signed him off,” Tina replied.

A worried frown creased Gavin’s face. It was unlike Nines to bunk off work, androids couldn’t get sick so it was a mystery. He dropped his partner a quick message and ignored his gut instinct to panic for the time being. The day went on, leads were being followed up around the city to try and locate the AAL. Somehow it wasn’t the same without Nines there.

He wasn’t at work the following day either, nobody had heard from him. Even Fowler agreed to put out a public search for Nines and soon his face was plastered all over e-boards in the city with an appeal for information on his whereabouts. It was left on the backburner; nothing more could be done until a team from Missing Persons got out to his home and interviewed the neighbours.

The tip off about Nines being spotted as he was loaded into a van looking dazed and unco-ordinated came at almost the same time as the likely location of the AAL’s base of operations was figured out. Fowler had to command Gavin to stay focussed on his task to bring the AAL down and let Missing Persons do their job and deal with Nines.

There was no progress over the night shift on either cases and Gavin was antsy. There were plans for a sting operation in the making, but it was still a few days until it could be executed and Missing Persons weren’t getting very far with Nines’ disappearance. Tension made everyone snappy at the station; tempers were quick to flare over simple things like leaving the coffee carafe empty.

Eventually, Fowler had to order Gavin to stop harassing Missing Persons over Nines and focus on his job. He agreed that it would be great to have Nines’ input on the case, yes he missed the guy too but he couldn’t spare people to help with the investigation. They had a whole department for that. The chat pushed Gavin’s worry down to a simmer as he tried to get his head into the task at hand but Nines was a constant niggle in the back of his mind.

The raid was pulled together, teams from other precincts joined for the sting and Gavin found himself between Tina and Hank, the padding of their bullet proof riot gear dug into his sides. The tang of nervous sweat lingered in the back of the van and Gavin was out as soon as the doors were open. If their source was to be believed, there was a control room that gave video feed to the whole complex – that was what Gavin, Hank and Connor were to head for. The rest of the teams would sweep through the building and round up the AAL members, they had to secure the footage before anyone could tamper with the evidence.

Final check-ins were sounded off and the raid began. There were shouts, the sound of gunfire and chatter on the channels as teams gave updates on their positions, status and arrests made. For their part, Gavin, Hank and Connor pressed through the corridors and were lucky enough not to encounter anyone. The control room was locked but Connor easily shouldered his way in.

Inside, the whole wall was covered with monitors and they could see the teams sweeping through. Connor set about calling out locations of AAL members cowering in rooms for teams to converge on while Hank rummaged through the drawers for tapes to bag up. Meanwhile, Gavin was flicking through the filing cabinets, finding names of members and working out the hierarchy of the organisation. It was so much bigger than they thought. Idly, he flicked the monitor to a computer on.

It flickered to life and he cast a distracted look at it. His eyes were drawn back to it, wide with horror. Rather than the expected computer screen, it was another CCTV labelled “Basement”. On the grainy black and white screen it was impossible to mistake the figure stood ramrod straight in the corner of a tiny cell. Nines.

 

                Each burst of noise made Nines shiver. He couldn’t turn his sensors down, whatever his abductors had done, they’d left a glitch in his system, weakened his coding so he couldn’t fight back physically or mentally. Nines’ vision was clouded by a red wall and he braced his hands against it, trying to keeping the chards from falling. He didn’t want to feel, didn’t want to deviate. Not yet. The door at the end of the room opened and his mental image of himself cowered against the wall with a whimper. He didn’t know how long he could hold the wall up for.

Three figures rushed into the room. Nines didn’t move. He didn’t flinch, refused to feel the terror that coursed through his plastic veins like tainted thirium.

“Nines,” a familiar voice gasped and he looked at the person then. Gavin’s hand was up against the bars of his cage. “We’ll get you out of there, stand back!”

It was easy to obey his order, even if the red walls around him crumbled. Nines pushed against them, willed them to stay in place. He watched impassively as Gavin levelled his gun and aimed for the old fashioned lock. The expected bang of the gun firing still made half his walls tumble into a fine red mist around him, nothing but dust left of his coding but Nines clutched what little remained of them.

The door swung open and Gavin looked at him with wide, worried eyes.

“What did they do to you?”

He reached a hand towards Nines and it was like he was reaching into his very being, the walls fell away as the hand reached through them, wiped away their remains.

“Gavin,” Nines gasped and took a few steps towards him, all but collapsing against him.

It was too much, everything was too loud, the memories too sharp as they played through his mind. He clung to Gavin’s shoulders, sagged when arms wrapped firmly around him.

“I’m sorry you weren’t my first,” he gasped between sobs he had no control over.

Under him, Gavin froze for a moment as the words sunk in. The arms around Nines tightened a fraction more as Gavin gathered him closer.

“I’m sorry too. We’ll put those sick bastards away for a long time.” Gavin rubbed his back in soothing circles. “Let’s get you out of here, away from it all.”

With Nines as a witness and survivor of the group’s ministrations, there was less of a need for all the footage they’d gathered. Gavin was glad he didn’t need to watch the feed from the Retraining Room, especially as he didn’t want to see what they’d subjected Nines to. What little he knew, most androids broke fairly quickly under the AAL’s brutish methods but Nines was resistant, not just through his programming but through sheer will power. He’d broken for Gavin though.

It was still a long road ahead before Nines could return to work. Sourcing and android therapist had been difficult enough without trying to find one willing to work with the most advanced model ever made. In the end it took an engineer and a therapist to work together to mute or blur some of the memories, help Nines manage to move past the induced reactions it had instilled in him. He still jumped at unexpected touch but craved Gavin’s body heat at the same time. The conflicting desires were enough to make his LED spin a violent red until Gavin could press a coin in his hand. It wasn’t easy, and while Gavin may not have been his first, he was still the first he’d said yes to.

**Author's Note:**

> Living through the tumblr-pocalypse as @connorssock.


End file.
